There exist a number of domestic and international payment networks available to facilitate the completion of monetary transactions. An individual payment network allows the user to affect a payment to individuals and/or corporations through the banking system. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank's Fedwire system is a payment network that allows users to transfer funds via the United States Federal Reserve Bank network. Other such payment networks include the Automated Clearing House ("ACH") payment network, the New York Clearing House Interbank Payment System ("CHIPS") and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication System ("SWIFT").
In the initiation of payments and transfers between various entities, certain banks have provided access to the various payment networks to their customers. Accordingly, a customer can choose a preferred method of payment to complete a transaction depending on the nature of the transaction and the location of the entities involved. Some transactions may need to be completed within a definite time frame, such as twenty-four hours, and thus only a specific or limited number of payment networks may be employed to complete the transaction in the time required. Further, certain payment networks are more convenient or efficient than others depending on whether the transaction must be completed nationally or internationally.
To facilitate the use of such payment networks, banks have provided various data processing products to their customer base. Employing a data communications network and various types of computers monetary transactions can be completed quickly and safely without the need for significant bank intervention. Banks have, therefore, provided access to their customers to individual payment networks through the use of mainframe and personal computers, and local area networks or other forms of communication networks. A customer subscribing to one of these products would thus have access to a specific payment network to complete a certain type of payment transaction. Such customers typically include corporations, which employ personal computers or the like to communicate with the payment network subscribed to.
Over the years, therefore, a plurality of differing and sometimes incompatible payment network interfaces have been developed. Due to the differing nature of the various national and international payment networks, customers who subscribe to several network interfaces need to learn the proper protocol with which to access each system. Where many payment transactions need to be completed on a daily basis using various payment networks, the differing protocols for each can be confusing and difficult to master. Moreover, since the interface systems and the networks themselves include differing architectures, several forms of computer hardware are required to communicate with the host of payment networks available. This requires that a customer purchase or lease sometimes redundant computer hardware to communicate with differing systems. In addition to the increase in cost, such hardware also takes up valuable space.
What is lacking, therefore, is a single user interface that would allow customers to communicate with any of the payment networks. Such an interface would provide access to any or all of the available payment networks employing a minimal amount of hardware. In addition, such an interface would use a common protocol to initiate payment transactions over the various payment networks, thus eliminating the need to learn the protocol employed by each and every differing network. Preferably, such an interface would provide access to all of the payment networks through a single user interface appearing on a computer display terminal.
It is, therefore, an objective of the invention to provide a single display interface to initiate and complete monetary transfers over any of a plurality of payment networks.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide access to the various payment networks employing a protocol that is common to initiate transactions over all networks.
It is further an objective of the invention to provide access to the various payment networks through a single transaction entry screen.